Falafel Night!

I have been feeling pretty down in the dumps this week so I decided to cheer myself up by cooking dinner for my family. (Nothing is more depressing than eating leftovers right? ;)) I found a fun recipe for Tzatziki sauce that I've been wanting to try out so I decided to make a whole Middle Eastern meal. (Kind of like when you find a cute necklace and have to build an outfit around it). So I looked up falafel recipes online and went shopping! I got everything I needed for the tzatziki and falafel as well as some ingredients for matzah ball soup and couscous (I just made some from a box) It took me a while to make everything since I'd never made Israeli/Greek food before but it made the house smell SO good. Izzy especially liked the smell and sat by me while I cooked

Here is the recipe I used for falafel.

1 15 oz can chick peas, drained

1 medium onion, finely chopped (I used a Mayan sweet onion)
2 T fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 t coriander

3/4 t cumin

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 T flour
Oil for frying

Basically I just threw everything except the flour in the food processer and blended it til it was like a thick paste. (Smelled and tasted delicious already) Then you add the flour and mix it for just a few seconds. After that you roll it into little balls. The recipe said golf ball sized but I think that is too big. You want then to fit nicely in your pita so I made them smaller. Flatten them slightly and fry them in oil. I didn't want the extra fat so I just put a little olive oil in a pan and browned them that way. It takes a lot longer but still tastes delicious. Next time I am going to try baking them in the oven. Once they are fried they are ready to eat. I served mine in whole wheat pita with alfalfa sprouts, tomatoes, pickles, olives, hummus, cilantro and tzatziki.

This is the recipe I used for tzatziki. It came from ourbestbites.com

1 1/2 c Greek Yogurt (I used fat free, generic brand yogurt)

1/2 medium sized cucumber

3 green onions

1 clove of garlic, minced

1-2 t lemon juice (I used about 2)

1 tsp dill weed

Salt to taste

First you PEEL the cucumber and remove seeds. I put peel in caps because sadly, I forgot this step. Luckily it only calls for 1/2 of the cucumber so I salvaged the sauce by peeling and using the second half after I realized my mistake. Taking out the seeds is simple. Just cut the cucumber in half vertically and use a spoon to scrape them out. I used one of those grapefruit spoons that is pokey on the end (I'm sure there is a technical term for this) and it worked really well. After you peel it you finely slice it into about 1 -1 1/2 inch pieces. Then you mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl and you're done. I also added a little pepper to mine.

The last thing I made was matzah ball soup. I basically just made the recipe on the back of the matzah flour mix. It was really simple and took just a few minutes. Though you do have to chill the dough in the fridge for 15-20 minutes before you cook it. Instead of cooking mine in water first I just stuck them straight into some boiling chicken broth, added some rosemary, salt and pepper and it made a delicious soup. I let it cook for about 30 minutes. The only way I know how to tell if the matzah balls are done is by cutting one open so I did that once or twice before it was all the way cooked.

What a fun, healthy meal. The only fat in the whole thing was in the pitas and couscous and still that was hardly any. It was fun to take a walk down memory lane of our time spent in Israel. Mom especially liked it :)

The Joys of Diabetes

I am dedicating this blog to my blood and its lack of glucose at the moment. Though eating is one of my passions, dragging myself out of bed to raise my blood sugar when I am exhausted and not hungry just isn't the same. But, I decided this would be a good time for a blog post since I'll be up for a bit.

This week has been extremely hard for me. My grandpa Israelsen became ill and passed away in just a few days. I have always had an extremely hard time with goodbyes. Even saying goodbye to someone who I know I will see in a few days is hard on me. Maybe it has something to do with experiencing the deaths of many loved ones growing up, I'm not sure. That being said, it was heartbreaking to me to say my goodbyes to a man I love so dearly. I guess I felt there weren't words enough to express to him how much I love him and anything I would say would just sound silly.

I have been blessed to have many good examples in my life, two of them being my grandfathers. Both were as close to perfect as I think humanly possible. When I think about my handsome grandpa Lyle I think about his sense of humor. I will always remember him telling me to carry around a big stick to scare off "all the boys" or his latest crack about Hillary Clinton. :) I could always count on Grandpa to have a new side-splitting joke everytime I was blessed enough to be in his presence. I've never met anyone with such a witty sense of humor.

And oh how he loved my grandma! Though I didn't know them as newlyweds, I don't think it's possible that they were more in love then than they are now. My grandma has so many cute stories about Grandpa. One of my favorites is how she moved the buttons on his military uniform out over the years so he always thought he was still the same size he had been years before. Or how he would sing "their song" to her as they lay in bed at night. I hope when it comes time for me to choose a husband I will choose as well as my grandma did. It breaks my heart that they aren't together anymore but it makes me so grateful for the Plan of Salvation.

Grandpa is such an example to me. He was patriotic, strong, funny, handsome, selfless, romantic, sweet, loving, strong in the church and everything I hope to be someday. I am blessed, and so honored to be an Israelsen. I am grateful to have spent 19 wonderful years with him and hope to live my life in a way that will enable me to live with him again someday. I can't think of anything that could make me happier than to hear another good Obama joke from my grandpa Lyle. I love and miss him so but I know he is happy building us a great big cabin to create more memories in! :)

Cookies!

In honor of Super Bowl Sunday I decided to post a new cookie recipe I tried out recently. John and I found some mini-Reeses Pieces at the grocery store so I looked up a recipe for cookies online. They turned out SO yummy. I didn't cook them as long as they said. I never do. Not sure if it's because I like cookies under-done or if my mom's oven cooks a little fast. Also, I am a firm believer in Splenda so I substituted Splenda for the white sugar and Splenda Brown Sugar for the brown sugar Anyway...Enjoy!

Reeses Pieces Cookies

1 c. shortening
1 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 c. (1 lb package) Reeses Pieces (or Reeses Pieces Minis)

Cream shortening brown sugar and vanilla. Add eggs and beat well. Combine dry ingredients. Add creamed mixture and dry mixture together. Stir in Reeses Pieces. Cover and chill for 1 hour. Drop by spoonful on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes. Makes 6 dozen.

So...there you have it! This weekend was such a fun one! I was sick ALL week and finally started feeling better Saturday so I took a little trip to SLC. Isn't Utah a great place to live? I definitely think so!

Valentine's Day is this coming Sunday. I am actually looking forward to it. Though 17 out of my 19 years I have felt like the only girl who didn't get any flowers, I think it is a great holiday. I know people complain about how it is only a holiday for people who are in love but that is silly. I think Valentines Day is a day when we should think about everyone that we love. There is such a great feeling in the air at Christmas time because people are remembering who and what they are greatful for. I wish people could think about that again on V-Day instead of being grumpy that they don't have a "significant other". Just a thought. I also love Valentine's Day because my dad always buys me cute socks and jewelry. :)

Another thought I had tonight...what is the deal with nightmares? I have taken 2 psychology classes to try and figure out why I have such crazy dreams but no one seems to know exactly why. For example, though I do occasionally have the typical "go to school naked" nightmare, most of my nightmares have to do with things that I learn in History class or on the news. Here are a few examples of what I mean: My family is sent to concentration camps during the Holocaust, my brothers and I are fighting against each other in the Civil War, I live in a concentration camp-like village in Cambodia (I had to read a book about this for a class at USU), I am on the Titanic when it sinks, I somehow get trapped in a cave with Osama Bin Ladin, I am trapped in a theater during Hurricane Katrina, I am forced into a polygamist relationship with Tom Green etc. I would say 90% of my nightmares are like this. And though they sound kindof silly, they are SCARY SCARY SCARY to me! So what does this mean? Maybe I should stay away from newspapers and TV from now on.

Anyway, those are my thoughts today. Back for more later.

Milestones of 2009

Though we are more than a month into 2010 I have been reflecting a lot on all that I have accomplished and learned over the past year. Here are some of the milestones that stick out in my mind.

* First time being a bridesmaid (AND second!)
* First overnight visit to the hospital
* First overnight visit to the ER (oops!)
* First time giving myself a shot(Yippee!)
* First time hiking
* First stage kiss
* First first-date-kiss (Lesson learned there)
* First dog
* First lesson plan written
* First real job (USU)
* First blog
* First time to Guatemala and Belize
* First time seeing "The Three Amigos"
* First time riding Thunder Mountain
* First time crying on a ride (see above)
* First dog bite (Ouch!)
* First time spending an entire paycheck at Hobby Lobby (and definitely not the last)
* First jewelry made
* First ginger beer (Gross!)
* First Donny Osmond concert!
* First time having a "scope" stuck up my nose and down my throat (Most unpleasant)
* First date with someone NOT from Cache Valley
* First time driving stick shift
* First pair of full-price jeans
* First time being the only available Ballam daughter
* First class in my major
* First car boot
* First time making sushi myself
* First preschool graduation
* First time being truly thankful for my family and all that I have!

Lots of firsts! Hopefully 2010 will be filled with many more!